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Indianapolis-based Midwest Model Makers has found big success by making very small objects - specifically, detailed architectural models of everything from buildings to golf courses to weapons systems.
Its marquee achievement was unveiled this month at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C. On display since Dec. 2 is a 14-foot-tall, impeccably accurate re-creation of the U.S. Capitol Dome.
"I like to call that a legacy project," said Ed Watson, 45, the company's founder and president. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. An amazing experience, and humbling, too?'
Not to mention maddeningly complex. Tiny pieces of the project in the form of leftover bits of the building - are still scattered around the company's offices, inside the refurbished pump house at the old Fort Benjamin Harrison.
Though the task was arguably simpler than building the real, 100-foot-diameter structure, which was completed in 1863, it was still a major effort. Making sure all those parts looked exactly like the real thing became an exercise in forensic architecture.
Normally, when the company creates one of its models, the client provides hyper-detailed, easy-to-use electronic architectural documents upon which to base the work. Not so with the U.S. Capitol. The building's cornerstone was laid in 1793 by George Washington himself, and the dome was added during the Civil War. When Watson's company began its three-year construction campaign, all it had to go on were old photographs and moldy sketches.
"We had the original Capitol drawings," said Chris Fahrmeier, director of the company's visual studio, which produces its sophisticated computer models and renderings. "We had updates that were done in the early or late '90s, but none of these were very detailed. So we had to take the original, water-colored drawings, trace those onto the computer, build the CAD drawings, and then create a 3D image."
Those images were turned into detailed design prototypes, which were used to create the molds from which were cast the hundreds of pieces needed to assemble the dome. It was like putting together the world's most complex, temperamental, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The exacting project required more than 5,000 hours to complete.
The company's use of tough plastic resin helped win the international competition to build the miniature dome - a job with a price tag...